Vatican City, Oct 26, 2005 / 12:00 am (CNA).- Following today’s General Audience in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Benedict addressed a group of children from the "Citta di Speranza" (City of Hope) hospital in Padua, Italy, telling them encouragingly, that, Christ’s cross “helps us to understand the true meaning of suffering and pain.”

The Pope told the young people that, "As we heard during the catechesis, the cross of Christ brings us to understand the true meaning of suffering and pain. Unite yourselves spiritually to the Crucified Christ, and abandon yourselves in the hands of Mary, constantly invoking her in the Rosary."

According to the Vatican, the hospital came into being in 1994 with the dual aim of building a new department of pediatric onco-hematology, which was inaugurated two years later, and to support research into childhood cancer.

At the conclusion of his message, the Holy Father added that October, the month dedicated to the Rosary, is now coming to an end. "I invite you”, he told the crowd of 50,000 pilgrims, “to recite with devotion this prayer, so dear to Christian people.”

“Let us pray for the many needs of the Church and the world,” he said, “especially for people hit by earthquakes and by physical and environmental calamities."